Pratfalls and slapstick
I watched HBO's Getting On over the past week. I managed to find all but the last episode of season 2 online. I was VERY worried about watching a remake of a show that I already like. I have purposely never done so before. Luckily, it was alright! I've always liked Laurie Metcalfe. She was wonderful.
The positive differences from the BBC version were:
1. The happy moments added to most episodes, such as someone playing a fun tune on the piano. The BBC version was quiet and mostly joyless.
2. The touchy-feely staff often hugging each other.
3. DeDe's emotional attachment to the patients. I saw her wiping a tear from her eye more than once. This was helpful for the fictional programme, but in real life most nurses have to remain professionally distant as a coping mechanism. I worked in a nursing home as a teen and never saw any staff working up a tear from either joy or grief. My mother was an RN for 40 years. I don't recall ever hearing her get a bit choked up when speaking about one of "her old ladies."
The terrible difference in the HBO version was the frequent use of big, overt slapstick comedy. Yuck! THIS was the type of dumbing-down-for-the-Americans that I hoped Getting On would avoid. I'm an American, too. Even I was insulted by it.
Patsy being sprayed with diarrhoea, someone being sprayed with blood, Dawn literallyprat-falling into the fountain. Dawn falling onto the remote-control bed. The nurses trying to insert a gastic tube was filmed as a 'hilarious' rape scene (Eye-rolling was more like it.) Dennis having his balls grabbed by an evil patient, with the camera zooming in and showing, guess what? His balls being grabbed for several seconds.
Some scenes were taken directly from the original, but had to have a bit of MTV's "Jackass" written into them. On BBC, Ivy vomited onto her shirt a little. It was meant to be disgusting and realistic. On HBO, Varla vomited onto her shirt. THEN she projectile-vomited onto DeDe so that the audience would think, "That was funny!"
On BBC, the humour with the motion sensor lights was low-key. On HBO, we had to watch Dr. Jenna urinating in a bathroom stall as Dawn jumped up and down like a lunatic to keep the lights on.
On BBC, Dr. Pippa spilled water onto the male doctor's lap and embarrassed herself by making an attempt to dab at it for a moment. On HBO, Dr. Jenna did the same but kept rubbing on him and kept rubbing and kept rubbing...
I was surprised when I read this board to see some fans type that they laughed so much it hurt. Before watching HBO's Getting On, I thought that Getting On was intended to be a subtle, very dark, comedy-drama. I wish the American writers had more faith in their audience. We don't need flashy, over-the-top slapstick to know that something is funny.
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